The State of UX: Five Lessons from 2021 to Accelerate Digital Experience in 2022
Summary
In this session, UserZoom reveals findings from its annual State of UX report, identifying what’s getting in the way of UX teams becoming a critical part of decision-making, how to overcome these challenges and make a demonstrably positive impact on business performance.
Key Insights
-
•
Only about 55-60% of organizations have an established UX research process embedded into their development lifecycle.
-
•
A large number of product decisions are made daily without user insights, relying on assumptions.
-
•
Securing executive buy-in and identifying appropriate success metrics remain top challenges for user research teams.
-
•
User experience metrics beyond basic site analytics are underutilized but critical to comprehensive product understanding.
-
•
Demand for UX research is increasing rapidly, with 70% of respondents reporting growth, accelerated by digital disruption and the pandemic.
-
•
Design hiring is outpacing UX research hiring at a rate of 34%, leading designers to conduct more tactical research themselves.
-
•
This democratization of research among designers unlocks capacity for more strategic work by dedicated researchers.
-
•
Time and budget constraints, especially around participant recruitment and study logistics, remain major obstacles to research.
-
•
Mixed-method approaches combining qualitative and quantitative techniques are used by nearly 70% of researchers, primarily focused on usability testing.
-
•
Organizations are often focused on tactical usability validation rather than strategic discovery or complex measurement research.
Notable Quotes
"For many organizations, research is really not embedded completely and consistently into the development process."
"There’s a huge proportion of product decisions being made without any user insights, based on assumptions."
"Getting executive buy-in is so critical to the success of research, yet it remains a challenge for many."
"User experience metrics can give you a well-rounded perspective beyond mere site analytics."
"We saw one insurance form took 14 minutes to fill, and that was longer than competitor journeys, helping identify a clear target for improvement."
"Demand for user research is increasing dramatically, but design hiring is outpacing research hiring by 34%."
"Designers are becoming increasingly interested in doing their own tactical user research within sprint cycles."
"Time constraints and budget limitations are the top obstacles to effective research today."
"Nearly 70% of organizations use mixed-method research approaches, mainly focused on usability testing and validation."
"UX research is a journey, not just a switch you flick on; many challenges you face have been experienced by others in the community."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The challenge of prioritization increases when decisions are adaptive, systemic, and dynamic."
Mark Interrante Harry MaxAI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
July 11, 2024
"No VP or director has direct responsibility at board level. It’s the C-executives who ultimately decide."
Patrizia BertiniThe (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG
September 11, 2025
"Not knowing what something is called or what a newly inflated word means introduces confusion and causes people to talk across purposes."
Shan ShenTranslating UX Terms into Business Contexts
November 29, 2023
"60 to 90% of our ideas do not improve the metrics they were intended to improve."
Adam ThomasSurvival Metrics – Making Change in a Fast, Data-Informed, and Politically Safe Way
December 6, 2022
"Ubuntu means I am because we are — we don’t really know our own humaneness unless it’s in relationship to other people."
Robin BeersResearch as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
March 12, 2021
"Keeping something cloud-based accessible is the most complicated because of hundreds of releases per day in continuous integration."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"There is no formula for good critiques, but mindset is behavior over time: humility, active listening, gratitude, owning blind spots, and acknowledgment."
Joseph MeersmanSweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
June 10, 2021
"Saying no with intentionality and clear guidelines creates clarity and focus."
Deanna Washington Bria Alexander Jon Fukuda Saara Kamppari-Miller Farid SabitovConnecting the Ops: Plenary Panel and Closing Circle
September 9, 2022
"Equal solutions still leave some people out; tailoring based on needs actually provides equity."
Aaron Stienstra Lashanda HodgeLeveraging Civic Design to Advance Equity and Rebuild Trust in the US Federal Government
December 8, 2021
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How can organizations manage the noise created by non-expert researchers conducting user research?
How should I choose communication channels and message formats to effectively share research insights?
How could universal acceptance and personalized learning journeys change college admissions and education?